New law frees teen killer after 30 years

Courts ruled juveniles must have parole shot

8:11 PM,
Mar. 6, 2014

Charles 'Rusty' Blizzard

Written by

Sean O?Sullivan
The News Journal

On Thursday morning Charles "Rusty" Blizzard went from serving a life sentence for the beating death and robbery of Howard W. Marshall, to being ordered free by a judge.

Neither the murder charge against Blizzard nor the facts of the case changed: Blizzard and a friend beat and kicked the 55-year-old Marshall to death as part of a robbery that yielded $10.

But at the time of the June 4, 1982, fatal beating, Blizzard was 17. In June 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was cruel and unusual punishment to automatically sentence a juvenile offender to life in prison, no matter their crime, without ...